Current edition of WDI (annual CPI data) has some weird missing data series. There is no data provided for CPI in the UK from 1960-1987. The series for China starts in 2010. For Argentina, no data until 2014.

I could certainly believe there is insufficient data for some countries in some years (say, France during World War II). But it's hard to believe that data in the UK were insufficient to calculate a CPI prior to 1988. Similarly for the other examples.

$\begingroup$Good Q. My guess is that the folks at the World Bank have simply not gotten around to calculating these numbers yet. Give them time (10, 20 years?) and maybe those missing entries will be filled.$\endgroup$
– Kenny LJJan 22 '17 at 3:04